For some reason, time is starting to fly! I keep watching the calendar
thinking I only have this many weeks or that many days remaining and it
is creating a bit more nervousness than I prefer!Read more...

This time, I approached each chapter differently. I would read through
all the main paragraphs and bullet points within each sub-sections of
each remaining chapters to give me a little more idea of what to expect
within a chapter.Read more...

Well my test is two weeks from today on a Friday. Some days I feel
pretty good about my understanding of the material and at other times I
feel like I am just reading something for the first time.Read more...

I belong to the Cash Management and Settlements department, which is
directly involved in all treasury operations. I have always considered
the CTP the ideal credential to manage this group.Read more...

This treasury certification is not required for my position, but through
my interest in personal and professional development, as well as
continued research on how to enhance the validity of my department, I
determined that this would not only help with the challenges mentioned
above, but also make our department and company more marketable to the
industry.Read more...

This calculation, which is a spin-off
calculation of Collected Balances Required (CBR), is an important bank
relationship management tool that can be used where you are compensating your
banks for services with balances rather than with fees.Read more...

A common question that comes up in the dailybanter between business professionals is “How’s Business?”. One of the waysthis question can be answered in a more sophisticated manner is to usefinancial ratio analysis to develop a more informed judgment as to thefinancial performance of your company.Read more...

I thought it might be useful to discuss each of
the four profit margin ratios to help prepare you to answer potential exam
questions that are designed to test your understanding of their definitions and
more importantly, how each is differentiated from the others.Read more...

You will most likely be faced with having to answer exam
questions that require an understanding of both "option-eze” (e.g. In-the-Money, Out-of-the-Money,
etc.) and the factors that determine the
value of an option.Read more...

So it was down to crunch time. With one week to go, I
fit in as much review as possible. I mapped out how I planned to use my last
week, and decided to focus on the chapters I was scoring poorly on.Read more...

I’ve only entirely read each chapter once and then
gave them a quick skim before taking the test. I plan to invest more time in
review for module 5 before taking the test to see if it helps my score and
confidence in the materials.Read more...

As I’ve mentioned, my wife’s been going through a lot
of my flashcards, and it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. She’s actually
started memorizing some of the cards – not just the answers, but also the
questions.Read more...

It’s
amazing how a week can slip by so quickly, but I think if I added up my total
hours of studying for this week, they would total less than five. I guess I
should look on it as a mini-break and really throw myself into things next
week.

I’m
studying every morning, four nights a week, and at least a full day on the
weekends, so I feel like the time I’m putting in will pay off at the end. Right
now, a lot of that time is going toward my initial reading of each chapter.Read more...

One of my first goals was to determine the most
productive times for me to study. I’m able to get up in the mornings and study
for nearly an hour before I leave for work. I find at this time I’m most alert
and energetic.Read more...

The online format of the test is extremely helpful
from a strategic and timing perspective.
The remaining time is in the top right corner of the screen and you can
skip and “flag” or mark questions that you want to go back and review later. I would recommend highly utilizing this
functionality as this prevents you from spending too much time on certain questionRead more...

With the last few hours tonight and
tomorrow morning I’m planning on reviewing my typed notes – looking for key
definitions, lists, terms, laws, agencies, etc to refresh my memory. In addition, I plan on going through about 10
final review questions from the Learning System in the morning prior to leaving
for the exam just to get myself into the test tasking mode. Wish me luck!

Since my last blog, I have finished the three last
modules (4, 5, & 6). In order to
break up the monotony of just taking practice question after practice question
I also reviewed all of the flashcards and definitions.Read more...

I have also found the AFP Learning System extremely
useful. I took the Pre-Test for the
second time and my score has increased, but not significantly from when I took
the exam about a year ago before I opened a booked to study.Read more...

Tonight I will take the first mock exam on the online
AFP Learning System in order to gauge where I am at in my studies and in
particular the chapters that I will need to review the most. I have three weekends left before the exam
and I believe during the weekends is when I can really get a large amount of
studying accomplished.Read more...

Most of the concepts except for
cash forecasting do not relate directly to what I do on a day to day basis, but
certain concepts like issuing commercial paper, long term debt, issuing equity,
MMF investments, fixed income portfolio, FX hedging and management are specific
of my greater Treasury department. The
text has expanded my knowledge and understanding in these areas.Read more...

At this point I believe I encountered my hardest
chapter yet, Chapter 10, Payment Systems, Collections and Disbursements. This chapter is extremely dense with
definitions and will require patience.
From my memory recollection I believe it is also the longest chapter as
well – the page count seems to be double, triple, and quadruple some of the
other chapters.Read more...

Although I have been previously studying in sequential
order and am only currently on Chapter 8, it was my turn to present to my study
group and therefore I had to skip ahead to Chapter 13 – Financial Decisions and
Management and focus on the details of that specific chapter.Read more...

Specifically,
the Excel document will serve as a formula reference guide which I hope to use
either directly to memorize formulas or can be turned into flashcards. The Word document can also be used later to
create flashcards for definitions of any unknown content.Read more...

This time around I am still readingthrough all of the chapters and decided to start from the beginning again onChapter 1, but the difference is that I am outlining/ taking notes in MicrosoftWord.Read more...

I
heard about the SFMTA study group for this December/January testing session via
an email I received and I decided to join the study group for various
reasons. Mostly I was hoping it would
keep me focused and help me track my studying.Read more...

My first piece of advice
to anyone reading this would be to start earlier than I have on gaining an
understanding of the calculations. I’ve
known about the exam for almost a year now and at this point I feel there is no
reason that I shouldn’t have been looking at the calculations before now.Read more...

One positive point is that the when I have
practiced the calculations they are coming to me easier than I thought they
would. I still remember many of them
from college classes so the practice has been more of a refresher for me.Read more...

As those of you who work in retail
know, December and January are very busy.
We are getting ready to close the year in January and all the
preparation begins in December. Luckily,
I have still made the time on Friday afternoon to study.

I am starting again at the beginning, so today I went back
through modules 1 and 2. These modules are a bit like the first few chapters in
a textbook you had in high school; easy as can be but the foundation of
everything that is going to come down the line, so you better have a good
understanding of what they mean.Read more...

But
the bright side is that most of the questions I got wrong are from modules 4
and 5. Furthermore, it shows that the AFP Learning System is posing questions
that test the person’s knowledge who is studying for the test. They are not
“gimme” questions at all.Read more...

I
shifted gears and began to study the later chapters. One thing that I am having
trouble with in the later chapters is trying to make flashcards. For example,
Chapter 16’s “Policies and Procedures” section seems so intuitive it made for
easy reading, but hard to put onto flashcardsRead more...

A better understanding of the "non-cash charge" accounting concept and, more
importantly, how it is connected to other accounting subjects in the BOK that
you might find in the form of CTP exam questions.

I decided to take the CTP exam shortly after
starting my current position. When I was hired for the position the CTP
credential was mentioned as something that management in the department would
like me to obtainRead more...

Ten years into my finance career, I decided to study for the Certified Treasury
Professional designation to ensure I have the technical skills to give me a
professional edge in an international job market.Read more...

I decided to sign up for the CTP about a year ago and initially signed up for the last exam window. The
study tool I used was the AFP Learning System: Treasury, 3rd Edition. I
took the online Pre-Test to understand where I needed improvement and then
began studying.Read more...

I will be using the AFP Learning System to study; there are six modules. I intend
to work through each module in two weeks, reading, utilizing homemade flashcards
and using the online tools provided. I will carve out 1 hour in the morning
each day to studyRead more...

It is a truism that every group or organization of people with a common
interest will create their own verbal “shorthand” with regard to ideas,
concepts, and practices considered typical in that common interestRead more...

Just in case you haven’t noticed, there are lots of questions, not only
in the BOK, but in the study stuff, the online study stuff, the
pre-test, the post test, the chapter tests, and even into your
nightmares and daydreams.Read more...

The ritual of the annual budgeting process, as those of you who have
managerial responsibilities can attest, is a sometimes burdensome
activity that can go through several iterations before it’s “blessed” by
senior management.Read more...

So, some years ago I introduced an alternative method for solving $/FX conversion questions that utilizes a little bit of “off-the-shelf” math that is based on the concept of “proportional relationships”.Read more...

...whether you’re calculating the interest earned on a short-term investment or the interest expense of a short-term borrowing arrangement, these equations are all a variation of the same underlying theme...Read more...

This fast-paced course is designed to help you prepare for the exam by
strategically focusing on key terms, concepts and calculations found in
each chapter of the BOK and as such is not a page-by-page review of the
text.Read more...

If you’re planning to take the CTP Exam in the June-July 2011 testing window, you might want to consider starting to study for the exam on Feb. 1st. At a minimum you should setup a three month study schedule, which in this case would be March – May.Read more...

I suspect that when some CTP candidates are confronted with the amount
of subject matter in the BOK that needs to be studied in order to pass
the CTP exam, they procrastinate and don’t start studying until just
before their exam date. If this is the case, they adopt a” cramming”
preparation strategy and for most people this is not a recipe for
successfully passing the exam.Read more...

Here’s a little Options-ese/English translation and some ideas for
remembering what Financial Risk Management terms mean in case you get an exam question that
uses this specialized language.Read more...

The ETM devotes a fair amount of time to lockbox processing systems in
general and specifically to determining the cost or benefit of moving
remittance processing from a company in-house processing center to a
bank lockboxRead more...

Operating Cash Flow is, for many people, the most difficult to
understand and especially confusing is the section that shows sources
and uses of cash generated by changes in Current Assets and LiabilitiesRead more...

Over the years of training CTP candidates to take the certification examination, I’ve found that there’s a lot of anxiety regarding the calculations. One technique I’ve used to help reduce “calculation anxiety” is to present the calculations in their operational context. This approach answers the two questions regarding any calculation which are; “So what?” and “Who cares?” In other words, why is it important and how does it support day-to-day decision making. I believe that this preparation technique can help you learn how to “crunch” the numbers as well as answer conceptual questions concerning a given calculation.Read more...